John Cole Photos

Photos

This page was last updated 31 Mar 2008.

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This is my dwarf hamster Tiffany - - Tiffy for short. When the weather is cool, she loves to ride and sleep in the left breast pocket of my flannel shirt.

This is Tiffy's Cool House. It's basically a drink cooler / warmer, adjustable in 1 degree Celsius increments. I made it so she can keep cool in summer (she's originally from Siberia, so they say). It's connected to her regular downstairs cage by pvc right angles taped together. She has two regular cages, upstairs and downstairs. She has a total of two bedrooms, three wheels, three toilets, one water bottle, one green tea bottle, three sandbaths, plus one "tree house" and many tubes.. Is she spoiled? Hmmm...

Every spring swallows come to my apartment building and nest. These are babies from summer of this year (the second batch this year from the same nest - - same parents, I assume). The one on the left is eating a dragonfly.

This video (opens in new window) shows a SPARROW coming up from the right, then the left, and then the right again, trying to help a baby SWALLOW fly, or at least cheer her on. The mother or father swallow can be seen several times on top of the M’s Boutique sign frame. I think this sparrow is the mother from a nest just inside the wall from the swallows’ nest. After watching for about an hour, it seemed that the baby swallow had no chance of making a successful flight that day, so I put on some disposable gloves, caught her, and put her back in the nest. She flew the next day along with all her siblings. Turn up your speakers so you can hear the sparrow’s chattering.

This is me, taken last October, at about 54 1/2 years old. I lost 12 kilograms in about a year; my total cholesterol and LDL went way down, and HDL up a little. I got in bad shape by donating too much blood to the Red Cross, but that's another story. Since this photo was taken, I have built up a little muscle, and more overall strength. I jog, swim, and lift weights once a week each.

I think natto, which I started in the autumn of 2005, started the weight loss process (in the autumn of 2005 I added natto to my regular diet, but made no other changes). In the spring of 2006, because of the weight loss and gradual gain in strength, I was able to start exercising again (i.e. I did not lose those first 5kg, from July 2005 to April 2006 through exercise). Notice the rapid changes in LDL and Total Cholesterol from June 2006 to October 2006. I attribute those to lots of chlorella and spirulina, which I added in spring of 2006, plus many vegetables, nuts,fish, etc, as well as increased exercise, mainly jogging and swimming, as I gained strength. My complete exam done in January of 2005 showed excellent values (excellent for 20 - 30 years old) for everything tested except those shown below. (For novices, LDL + HDL = Total Cholesterol is not exactly correct, because there are other cholesterol fractions besides HDL and LDL that contribute to the Total Cholesterol value, usually in a small way).

DATE	HDL	LDL	TOTAL CHOL	TRIGLY	WEIGHT
2005 JAN	71	142	247	84	80.9kg
2005 JUL	xxx	xxx	xxx	xxx	83.0kg
2006 APR	xxx	xxx	xxx	xxx	78.0kg
2006 JUN	78	119	218	xxx	xxx
2006 OCT	79	85	181	53	71.0kg

My story on goji berries was published on NaturalNews.com on 02 Oct 2007 http://www.naturalnews.com/022082.html . I honestly believe the goji berry (not the juice) may be the healthiest food on the planet, and is affordable for anyone. I have not had any blood tests done since I started eating goji berries daily early this year, but my overall energy level is getting higher and higher, and my joints have never been better (I have a family history of rheumatoid arthritis, and past episodes of inflammation and nodules in finger joints).

You might also want to take a look at my article on mixed fruit / veggie juices cheaply available in Japan http://www.naturalnews.com/022440.html , and a short article that just popped out of my head early one morning after I had read about "time for flu shots" the night before http://www.naturalnews.com/022139.html . I'm a big believer in natural foods and enough sunshine.

I originally found a leech - - or rather the leech found me - - after hiking in the nearby mountains. I saw a spot of blood on one my short white socks (great gear for hiking?!), and thought, "Oh, I must have stuck myself on a thorn." I turned the sock inside out, and this little worm-like critter fell out. After checking on the internet, I could only conclude that this was a small Hirudo medicinalis, or medicinal leech. One of my students here, a nurse at a local government hospital, asked one of her M.D. Ph. D. professors, and he said yes, it's the same species. I put that leech in a small glass jar with a little water, and put some holes in the aluminum cap, but the leech unfortunately escaped one night, and walked about 4 meters before s/he got dehydrated and died. That was a couple years ago.

Recently, as part of my detox I think, I've had some pimple-like skin problems. A couple of them failed to resolve cleanly, so I went back to the mountains and got a couple leeches. Lee-chan1 was the bigger of the two, so was used for the first leech feeding. Photos are below. Unfortunately, Lee-chan1 died about three weeks ago. At first I assumed that once a week was not frequent enough water and leaf changing, and that toxins has built up in the jar... but Lee-chan2 was fine... A couple weeks later, a few days after feeding, Lee-chan2 fell down into the water (about a quarter inch deep), and seemed to have trouble waking up. As leeches mainly sleep for about two or three months after getting a full belly, I realized that Lee-chan1 had perhaps fallen into the water, under a leaf, and drowned before s/he woke up enough to escape. Since that time, I've reduced the amount of water, and have checked on Lee-chan2 about twice a day.

Yes, leech food is my blood. At first it feels like a mosquito is sticking its proboscis into your skin, but then the feeling gradually subsides due to the leech's own analgesic. As for the idea that a leech might transmit a virus or other bug to you, if you consider that a leech doesn't stab but rather moves its three mouths with about 33 teeth each in a clockwise - counterclockwise motion, and secretes its own anticoagulant to get and keep the blood flowing, you'd have to conclude that even if the leech did have a virus, the chances of it entering your bloodstream are extremely slim. Indeed, the medicinal leech is used to improve blood flow for example after microsurgery to re-attach a finger.